Basic Data Privacy Concepts: Q&A
What is data privacy?
Data privacy is the practice of protecting personal information from unauthorized access
and ensuring data is used only for its intended purpose.
Why is data privacy important?
Data privacy safeguards personal information, protecting individuals from identity theft,
discrimination, and other abuses.
What is Personally Identifiable Information (PII)?
PII is data that can be used to uniquely identify an individual, like names, addresses, and
social security numbers.
What is data anonymization?
Data anonymization is the process of removing identifiable information from data to protect
individual privacy.
What is data pseudonymization?
Pseudonymization replaces private identifiers with fake identifiers, allowing data to be re-
identified if necessary.
What is a privacy policy?
A privacy policy is a document that explains how an organization collects, uses, and
manages users' personal data.
What are the primary goals of data privacy?
The goals are to protect individuals’ personal information and to ensure data is collected
and processed fairly and lawfully.
What is data minimization?
Data minimization is the practice of collecting only the data needed to fulfill a specific
purpose.
What is a data privacy attack?
A data privacy attack is an attempt to obtain or misuse personal data without authorization.
What is a re-identification attack?
A re-identification attack seeks to identify individuals from anonymized datasets by linking
them with other data sources.
What is profiling in data privacy?
Profiling involves analyzing data to build a detailed model of an individual's behavior,
interests, or characteristics.
What is datalinking?
Datalinking is combining data from different sources to gain additional insights, which may
infringe on privacy.
What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation is an EU law that gives individuals control over
their personal data and imposes data protection obligations on organizations.
What is HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is a U.S. law that mandates privacy
and security of health information.
What is CCPA?
The California Consumer Privacy Act is a U.S. state law that provides California residents
with rights regarding their personal data.
What are the rights provided under GDPR?
GDPR rights include the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict processing, data portability,
and object to processing.
What is the right to be forgotten?
Under GDPR, the right to be forgotten allows individuals to request deletion of their
personal data.
What is consent in data privacy?
Consent is an individual’s permission for an organization to process their personal data for
specified purposes.
What is informed consent?
Informed consent means individuals are fully informed about how their data will be used
before they agree to its collection.
What is a data breach?
A data breach is an incident where sensitive, protected, or confidential data is accessed or
disclosed without authorization.
What is a privacy impact assessment (PIA)?
A PIA is a process to identify and mitigate risks to privacy before data is collected or
processed.
What is data retention?
Data retention is the practice of storing data for a certain period as required by law or
business needs.
What is the difference between data privacy and data security?
Data privacy is about managing how data is collected and shared, while data security is
about protecting data from unauthorized access.
What is data governance?
Data governance involves managing data policies and procedures to ensure data quality,
privacy, and security.
What is a data privacy officer (DPO)?
A DPO is a professional responsible for ensuring an organization complies with data
protection laws.
What is the purpose of encryption?
Encryption converts data into a code to prevent unauthorized access, enhancing data
security and privacy.
What is data masking?
Data masking hides original data with modified content to protect privacy while
maintaining usability for testing or analytics.
What is a privacy policy language?
Privacy policy languages, like P3P, allow organizations to specify their data practices in a
standard format.
What is P3P?
The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) is a protocol allowing websites to declare their
data practices in a standardized way.
What is the role of anonymization in healthcare data?
Anonymization allows healthcare providers to use patient data for research without
compromising individual privacy.
What is the difference between opt-in and opt-out consent?
Opt-in requires explicit user consent, while opt-out automatically includes users unless they
specifically decline.
What is data portability?
Data portability allows individuals to request a copy of their data in a portable format for
use with other services.
What is sensitive personal data?
Sensitive personal data includes information like health records, racial or ethnic origin,
political opinions, and religious beliefs.
What is the function of privacy-by-design?
Privacy-by-design incorporates privacy measures into product development from the
beginning to ensure data protection.
How does profiling affect privacy?
Profiling can infringe on privacy by using personal data to predict behavior, which may lead
to unfair treatment or discrimination.
What is a third-party data processor?
A third-party data processor is an external organization that processes data on behalf of
another organization.
What are the privacy concerns with data linking?
Data linking can reveal sensitive information by combining different datasets, increasing the
risk of re-identification.
What is the purpose of a data privacy audit?
A data privacy audit assesses compliance with data protection laws and identifies areas
needing improvement.
What are some privacy concerns in the financial domain?
Financial privacy concerns include unauthorized access to account details, transaction data,
and misuse of financial information.
What are some privacy concerns in the medical domain?
Medical privacy concerns include unauthorized access to patient records, disclosure of
sensitive health information, and data misuse.
What is a privacy-enhancing technology (PET)?
PETs are tools and techniques that protect user privacy by minimizing data collection and
anonymizing data when possible.
What is differential privacy?
Differential privacy is a technique that adds noise to data to protect individual privacy in
large datasets.
What is a privacy notice?
A privacy notice informs users about data collection, usage, storage, and their rights
regarding personal information.
What is behavioral tracking?
Behavioral tracking is the collection of user behavior data, often for targeted advertising,
raising privacy concerns.
What is the concept of data ownership?
Data ownership refers to the rights individuals or organizations have over their data,
including control over its usage.
What are de-identified data?
De-identified data are data stripped of identifiable information to protect individual privacy.
What is privacy compliance?
Privacy compliance ensures that an organization’s practices adhere to data protection laws
and regulations.
What is a breach notification?
A breach notification informs affected individuals and regulatory bodies about a data
breach within a specified timeframe.
What is a data lifecycle?
The data lifecycle describes the stages through which data passes, from collection and usage
to storage and deletion.
What is metadata?
Metadata is information about data, such as when it was created, modified, and accessed,
which may reveal insights about users.
What is purpose limitation in data privacy?
Purpose limitation restricts the use of data to specific, stated purposes to prevent misuse or
unauthorized processing.
